Working on my Memoirs
For some time now, there has been a lot of attention placed on recording your life story. Self-publishers across the country have written their memoirs. Perhaps all this activity is a feeble attempt to achieve a bit of immortality.. Or maybe it’s just another case of the boomers overestimating their inherent importance to the world!
In my case, I became interested in memoirs after visiting New Orleans and touring the Laura Plantation, a fine example of a Creole Sugar plantation. Laura Locoul Gore, the author of the book, Memories of the Old Plantation Home, details the daily lives of the family members and slaves who worked to make the sugar farm a going concern.
What was most compelling about the Laura story, however, is the very clear mandate, inherited by the women of the family, to keep a diary and to later write down an account of their lives. Had it not been for these recorded records, the Laura Plantation would have crumbled to dust just as so many others have done through the years. Laura’s children and grandchildren, and indeed all of us, are richer for having her first-person narrative of life as a Creole in New Orleans in the 1800′s.
Why do my Memoirs?
I don’t have a story like Laura’s. But I am sure that Laura didn’t think her story was exceptional either. The fact is that any story that details the lives of a group of people at a given time period in history can be fascinating to those who read it 100 years later. Even the children and grandchildren of the writer have much to gain by an insight into the political and social currents that were sweeping the country in the years before they were born.
I was born in another country and came to America as an immigrant just a few years after the end of World War II. My life, while not unusual or unique, will still be interesting to my children. My parents had survived a brutal war and this survival colored their lives for many years as it colored mine and the lives of my sisters. And of course, America was another world then, even to its citizens. The pace of life was slower and the children who grew up during this time were eventually destined to usher in the most frenetic society in history.
So I’m hard at it. I’ve finished about 150 pages with photos and each day that passes, I find myself jotting down notes of things I had forgotten to include. I know that this memoir will not be an impartial accounting of my life. It will be born with all the weaknesses and prejudices that I have and I am sure that it will also reflect a big dose of forgetfulness. I never kept a journal so I have been working with memories. June is my month to finish this project. Wish me luck and I will keep you posted!
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Tags: autobiography, Laura Plantation, Memoirs, New Orleans
Nice piece of work
June 1, 2012 at 3:50 pm
I think this is a brilliant idea, and you and your entire family will gain from it. Good luck.
Wolf Crochet
June 2, 2012 at 8:18 am
Thank you Jill!
Gigi
June 1, 2012 at 11:56 pm
WOWO. that is an undertaking. I was thinking of doing the same thing, but I have too much on at the moment. I hav somehow done a few transcripts of some 30 odd cassettes of my talks with my father. Long haul that one. Good luck
Wolf Crochet
June 2, 2012 at 8:16 am
Oh Gigi! Your project sounds great! A few years ago my mother recorded her memoirs on tape and I made a booklet out of them. Her tapes weren’t as extensive as your dad’s though. It sounds like you have a real gold mine there. It’s a good thing to work on when you are retired.
Sharon
June 2, 2012 at 12:02 am
Good luck with it. We all have a story to tell but not many of us have the dedication to put it to paper.
Wolf Crochet
June 2, 2012 at 8:17 am
I’ve been working on them for about 2 years Sharon. Sometimes I would have a spurt of energy and do 20 pages in a row! There’s no rush to finish them, in fact, they get better if you let them stew in your mind for a while.
jd wolfe
June 2, 2012 at 10:51 pm
i’m a writer, too,and fully understand the task you are undertaking – but it will be well worth it, not only for your own descendents, but perhaps for others too. first, you are an example of what has been the greatest strength of the US – we were all immigrants. second, you are a very creative person – and there is always a story behind that creativity. third, who gives a darn if your life isn’t ‘exciting’? everyone’s life is unique. we journey through our days in this realm in parallel lines, intersecting on occasion with others who become crucial to our wellbeing – and a few who damage us. but the point is the moving forward in a positive way. i would love to read your memoir once it’s completed.
jd in st louis
Wolf Crochet
June 3, 2012 at 8:29 am
Thank you for your insight jd. I always thought that the ordinary stories of ordinary people were the most interesting. They offer a unique perspective that can only come from that person’s circumstances and point of view. The most difficult part is to avoid being self-serving in telling one’s own story. It will take me a while to finish but I hope to see this project through.
annielvsfiberre
June 4, 2012 at 7:34 am
WOW! Sounds like a FANTASTIC Project and a wonderful idea! The “ordinary circumstances of ordinary people” as you told jd above, are usually more extraordinary to the person reading them.
I would just love to see what you would write!
Your blog is SO well written how could anything else you write not be Excellent!??!
Good luck for your project!
Blessings to you and to all those whom you love!
Anne in Reading PA(the dead zone for crafting-unless you own an alpaca…lol)
Wolf Crochet
June 4, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Oh Annie, that is so funny! Maybe it’s time to get an alpaca.
Alpaca farms abound in my area but a Michaels–not so much. I have to drive a half hour to York or to Timonium, MD to get yarn! We have a great yarn store quite close to me but the prices are more than my budget can usually handle. Thank you for your kind comments about my memoirs. The project seems to be growing every day. And here I thought I was almost finished!